SPORTS AND THE SEMANTIC MINEFIELD
Without fail and without question, the longest running debate amoung intelligent professional wrestling fans is whether or not their sport of choice is, in fact, a true sport. It is a debate I have heard many times in my life. It is also a debate in which I have participated on many occassions. Sometimes in person with other wrestling fans as well as anti-fans who take the opposite position. Sometimes over the internet with strangers. Sometimes (and to be honest, most often) with myself in a quiet inner monologue. Generally, it is a debate of semantics as the definition of "sport" is called into question.
When someone of limited wrestling knowledge walks up to me or contacts me with the question of wrestling being a sport, what they are really asking is whether or not wrestling is predetermined, and since it is, I respond that in that respect wrestling is not a sport. However, when talking of the subject with other fans, I'm more inclined to an ambiguous retort such as "yes, however..." or "no, but..." with rare exception. I have, in the past but no longer, been very defensive when someone I'm meeting does not ask for my opinion on the issue and simply blasts my greatest passion. In fact, on one occassion, I was incredibly rude to the mother of my brother's now ex-girlfriend because of the topic. I was watching a then WWF Pay-Per-View when she walked into the room and asked how I could watch "that crap" because it is a "fake" sport. I won't repeat my response, but it wasn't characteristic of my normally mellow attitude.
The point is that the validity of wrestling's athleticism means a lot to me. So much that I've decided to devote an entire column to write out the inner debate I often have with myself on how much "real sport" criteria professional wrestling has in relation to other sports. At the end, I think we will both find that wrestling has more real sport characteristics than many other popular pastimes found on ESPN.
For the sake of clarity, and so I can get it out of the way and move on to the heart of the matter, here is the actual definition of "sport" from a dictionary...
sport (sp
